August Mercer
August Mercer was a participant in the World's Second Death Cage Experiment featured in the Decay Chain RPG on Quotev. He was Subject #08. Mercer is also present in Decay Chain: Radioactive Cascade, a spin-off of the original RPG. Appearance Mercer had short, thick black hair with unruly blond strands framing his face. His eyes were dark brown, and there were heavy bags under them. A blue drop earring hung from his left ear. He wore a long, baggy, dark blue cardigan and black flats. Personality In front of other people, he put on a somewhat cheerful front and did his best to stay on everyone's good side. He appeared to be laid-back, letting essentially nothing faze him. He might've cracked a threatening joke or two to let people know not to get on his bad side, and he often talked behind other adults' backs. He appeared to be nicer to children, often looking out for them, but this behavior was easy to miss. However, that was simply the persona known as August Mercer, one he had adopted over a year ago when he went undercover. Darcy Clerval was the real him, and the reality was that he was nowhere near as jolly as he made himself out to be; he'd grown tired of just about everything, and couldn't remember the last time he experienced "happiness," whatever that was. He also didn't mean any of the rotten or threatening things he said, even though he did feel somewhat bitter towards adults. He was particularly protective of children because he saw himself in them, and would not deliberately mistreat them just to uphold his persona. He already felt enough guilt every time he mistreated an adult, even though the people he interacted with were far from guiltless themselves. If anything, his indifference towards life's whims wasn't exactly faked. He'd grown tired of caring about anything, of wasting his energy on things like hope and despair, so he simply didn't care what happened to him anymore. To mask his lack of care for the things that happened around him, he generally reacted to everything in amusement, as if life itself was just a game. He didn't want the world to go to hell along with him, though, even if he acted like it. History Darcy Clerval had what can be considered a "normal" life throughout his childhood and teenage years; he lived in a house with his parents and attended school. He was a rather bubbly child, almost always appearing to be happy. His parents had ties to the mafia, but they tried to keep him out of it. He originally had no idea of his parents' true background until he was seven years old and he learned that his mother had, for some reason or another, murdered someone. The moment his parents were aware of his discovery they told him he saw nothing, knew nothing, and he helplessly absorbed their words. From then on, the happenings of their lives as criminals continuously crossed into his life despite their attempts to separate the two worlds, but Darcy turned a blind eye to it every time, desperate to believe it was all his imagination. He convinced himself nothing was going on, that nothing was wrong, and that he was a normal kid from a normal family living a normal life. As such, his day-to-day behavior was generally "normal," though he often had sudden fits of desperation in which he dragged his parents into doing this or that with him in order to reassure himself that they were a happy, normal family. He'd make them drop everything to spend time with him, even if it was something small like cooking dinner together or going out to a park. This lifestyle continued until he was seventeen years old and his mother was sniped by an unknown hitman. Since then, Mercer stopped turning a blind eye to the world of crime. The rest is unknown. Plot ROUND 1 ROUND 2 ROUND 3 ROUND 4 Relationships Ayaka Suzumi Ayaka met Mercer at the start of the experiment when she threw snowballs at both him and Hummingbird. He initially didn't think much of her, but they spoke several times after that; he offered her advice but tried to keep his distance. After she knocked some sense into him, however, he quickly grew fond of her, and they thus declared themselves "friends," though his relationship to her was closer to paternal. He prioritized her safety over everything else—even his own, despite her having lectured him about looking after himself. Since she was the first person he'd grown attached to in what seemed like forever—not like he could remember, anyway—she became his sole reason to live. Matteo "M" Hevel Mercer first interacted with M while they and a few others were investigating the body of Theodore Marshall Kennedy. He initially didn't think much of them, only that he was glad they weren't a total idiot unlike some people in the room, but he later grew to admire M's undying hope for everyone to break out of the experiment and survive. Normally, he would think of their mindset as naïve, but after Ayaka had lectured him about his attitude, he wondered if hope wasn't such a bad thing to have after all. M was a beacon of hope, he thought, and he believed in their ability to inspire that hope in other people, too. He formed an alliance with M, sharing information as freely with them as he had with Ayaka, working with them to find a way out of the death cage experiment. Though they didn't have enough time to become friends, he cared about them and hoped they would get out of the experiment alive even if he died. Hummingbird The two of them formed a weak alliance at the start of the experiment—Hummingbird proposed they call themselves "partners in crime"—agreeing to simply meet up every now and then to share information and discuss new developments together. Neither trusted each other enough to share attributes or currency or anything of the sort, but they agreed to help each other where they could. Mercer warned Hummingbird that if he ever betrayed him in any way, he wouldn't hesitate to become his worst energy, and Hummingbird echoed that sentiment. He was originally fooled by Hummingbird's act. Although he didn't wish to grow close to him, rather irked by the closeness of the term "partners in crime," he almost thought of Hummingbird's behavior as endearing, as if he were just an innocent child. However, Ayaka informed him she'd noticed a rather suspicious change in Hummingbird's demeanor, and he grew wary of his actions. This drew out the real Hummingbird, and Mercer found himself disgusted with his true nature. He grew to despise everything about Hummingbird; he was the embodiment of everything Mercer grew up hating, even though he couldn't remember his past. He was the epitome of crime, he was the epitome of amorality, and worst of all, he was a threat to Ayaka's safety. He quickly distanced himself from the man, and when Mercer's occupation was outed, he attempted to kill him in a final attempt to protect Ayaka before he died. However, Luna Mahigan stopped him and told him not to let the last thing he did be an act of hate. Had he lived a little longer, he would've properly fulfilled his promise to become Hummingbird's worst enemy. Elena "Eli" Emily Eli was the first child Mercer properly interacted with in the experiment, and although he intended only to extract information out of her, he ended up just explaining the rules of the experiment to her. She even let him hold her patched bunny, Tea, upon noticing how cold he was. He realized he couldn't bring himself to "use" a child in any way, even if he wasn't actually harming her. He asked her to promise him that she would stay out of harm's way, resolving to further help her if the opportunity arose again. Apollo Maxwell Mercer's initial impression of Apollo was that he was just a big idiot. However, he grew to dislike him by the time the two were trapped in the diner together; although he agreed with Apollo's cynical pessimism, he thought him distasteful for his overall indifference to the inherent immorality of the situation. How could a man calmly eat shrimp tempura after being told to murder someone? Had his occupation not been outed, he would've gone for Apollo's life in order to save Ayaka and M. (As you can see, there's not much of an actual "relationship," but it's Paige's fault for not interacting enough and letting the Cursed Gang go up in flames.) Trivia * During the experiment, his attributes were spy and robbery. * Prior to the death cage experiment, Mercer regularly smoked a pipe. Fortunately, there were none of those on the mountain, so he couldn't do that during the experiment. * He typically wore sandals, but that wouldn't be very convenient on a snowy mountain. * During his teenage years, he learned to play the violin. By the time the experiment rolled around, he was very rusty, but he could've played a thing or two had he really wanted to. * He was very good at playing pool. Noel Sinclair, do not ask him to play 8 Ball. He will destroy you. * He hated wearing clothes that were even a little bit tight—if it wasn't huge and baggy, he couldn't wear it. Thankfully, he didn't get cold easily, so he didn't have to worry about what he wore during the winter or in the death cage—he just threw on a million loose cardigans and he was good to go. * He learned Taekwondo for four years as a teenager, and revisited it when he was about 26. During the experiment, unfortunately, he wasn't as good as he used to be thanks to the memory loss, but his reflexes remained and he was a formidable opponent regardless. Quotes *''"Please don't put yourself near people of my ilk."'' - Mercer, internally, to Eli (Round 1) *"None of us really know what lives we're fighting to get back. It makes sense to feel lost . . . but the only thing you can do right now is keep chasing that feeling. Play their game, and whatever awaits at the end . . . so be it, yeah? We can't concern ourselves with what's still out of our reach." - Mercer to Ayaka (Round 2) *"So you're saying you watched him carefully drape on his timid, cutesy personality with your own two eyes. Lucky for us." - Mercer to Ayaka, about Hummingbird (Round 2) *"Intriguing, is it not? After you get past the initial shock of the event—which I'm sure must've been immense for ''you, so young and innocent—you're left with a carefully crafted mystery . . . !" - Mercer to Hummingbird, about the murder of Theodore Marshall Kennedy (Round 2) *"''I really doubt it would! What with these unflattering eye bags? And the fried bananas in my hair? Why, your room would be hideous!" - Mercer in response to Hummingbird's claim that his head would look charming in his room as a decoration (Round 2) *"Isn’t it ridiculous to spy on someone with the hopes of learning about someone else only to learn about yourself? I hadn’t even known that I was—that I was Darcy Clerval. And I haven't even done anything about it!" - Mercer to Ayaka (Round 2) *"Even though I’ve done nothing for you, even though I’ve gone and made you worry about me when I’m probably going to die soon, even though every moment I’ve had this name I’ve been hurting the people around me . . . you're still here, talking to me like this. . . ." - Mercer, internally, to Ayaka (Round 2) *"People have been scared, people have been losing hope . . . that’s why they’ve either been getting too careless or too careful . . . But you . . . You have a lot of strength left in that small frame of yours, and I have no doubt you can inspire these people to keep moving forward. You just need to keep a clear head—you cannot let fear consume you, or it will consume everyone else, too." - Mercer to M (Round 3) *". . . two hundred currency if they correctly guess which one of us dies! Wouldn't that be so alluring? Why should they save us?" - Mercer during the diner fiasco (Round 4) *"How foolish of me . . . ! To worry for my life, to give myself the duty to protect others when I knew it was going to end like this. This has been ridiculous, all of it." - Mercer, internally, before his death (Round 4) *"What matters is what you can do now. So keep your head up, kid, alright? I won't forgive you if you follow in my footsteps." - Mercer to M before his death (Round 4) *"Truly stupid of you to give me your weapon when you know you've been my biggest enemy in this experiment. If I kill you . . . Ayaka will finally be safe from you, won't she?" - Mercer while attacking Hummingbird before his death (Round 4)